Waqas Sadiq

Another one from Forum Nokia where they have published a document talking about the design of the pause menu in mobile games. As they are quick to point out, pause isn't just for action games to be able to take a break. Sure, turn based games can just be set down, but what if you need to make a call, quickly flip the phone closed, the boss walks in, etc.? All of these situations and more should ultimately pause and save the current game position. Some games are short enough where the game could be abandoned. However, many turn based games (such as strategy games) can have length scenarios. If you had to just kill the game, you may not lose much overall progress, but you could be set back an hour or more. Giving the ability to pause anywhere in any type of game makes for good usability.

On the other side of things, this sort of design would be good for any mobile application. So, if you're a game developer, read through this to, perhaps, get some new ideas. If you're doing non-game development, you might consider reading through this to see which pieces can apply to general mobile applications.

Resource information: At The Core Of Mobile Game Usability: The Pause Menu